Someone really smart in Todd Portune’s office warned his
or her superiors that the monthly first-Wednesday siren test might scare
the living hell out of tens of thousands of foreign people visiting
Cincinnati for the World Choir Games, so there will be no siren test
this month.

Anderson Cooper publicly announced that he’s gay after a discussion with friend
and journalist Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast regarding celebrities
coming out. Cooper emailed Sullivan about the matter and gave him
permission to print it.

“I’ve also been reminded recently that while as a society
we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the
tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.
There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young
people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all
ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in
making clear where I stand.

“The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”

The NFL is going to back off some of its local blackout
rules. Teams now must only hit 85 percent of their ticket sales goal
rather than 100 percent to avoid making local markets watch crappy
regional games instead of their favorite teams. That means more Bengals games, less crappy Browns broadcasts.

Leaders of the nonprofit Music Hall Revitalization Co.
seemed to have compromised last week when the group proposed a 99-year lease of
Music Hall as part of a $165 million renovation. But the lease included a
clause that would allow the group to acquire the historic building for $1 at
the end of the lease or at the end of a second 99-year lease. The permanent
sale of the building is what held up the initial plan to turn the renovation
over to the nonprofit group, which says its donors will not offer the financial
support without the city turning over ownership. Mayor Mark Mallory told The
Enquirer that the proposal will not be approved. “I don’t care if it’s 99 years, 198 years, 500 years or
1,000 years, the city should always retain ownership,” Mallory said. “That
should never change.”

The
George W. Bush Presidential Library denied a request by a Democratic super PAC
for documents related to Sen. Rob Portman’s work in the George W. Bush
administration. The library says it is not subject to the Freedom of
Information Act and that all are welcome to see the documents in 2014. The
super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, has been researching GOP candidates as
Mitt Romney moves closer to choosing a running mate.

“When
you look at the roster of V.P. candidates, each of them is significantly
flawed,” American Bridge senior adviser Ty Matsdorf said in a statement. “For
Portman, it is his calamitous record on fiscal issues while working at the Bush
White House. It shouldn’t be a shock that he is going to want to keep that
under wraps for as long as possible, but unfortunately it’s pretty hard to hide
a record as terrible as that.”

Facebook has created a new “find friends nearby” function
that will allow users to see friends and people they don’t know who are at
events or social gatherings. From some Facebook engineer’s comments on the
story:

I built Find Friends Nearby with another engineer for a
hackathon project. While it was originally called ‘Friendshake’, we
settled on ‘Find Friends Nearby’ for launch (the URL was a little bit of
a homage to the previous iteration).

For me, the ideal use case for this product is the one
where when you’re out with a group of people whom you’ve recently met
and want to stay in contact with. Facebook search might be effective, or
sharing your vanity addresses or business cards, but this tool provides
a really easy way to exchange contact information with multiple people
with minimal friction.

A new study released by the oil and gas industry claims
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been overestimating
methane emissions from natural gas and fracking, but environmental
groups have dismissed the study as “fatally flawed” and “biased.”

The study, released by the American Petroleum Institute
(API) and America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), claims methane
emissions given off during natural gas production are as low as half of
what the EPA is estimating. The study arrived just in time for a June 19
congressional hearing in which industry officials are testifying in
defense of natural gas production and fracking, a relatively new
drilling process that involves pumping thousands of gallons of water
underground to break up shale formations in order to release natural gas
and oil.

The nonprofit environmental group Physicians, Scientists,
and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSE) has questioned the methodology
behind the study. One criticism is that the study only covers 20 out of
hundreds of oil and gas operators. This makes the study “statistically
invalid,” according to Anthony Ingraffea, a professor of engineering at
Cornell University and a member of PSE.

Ingraffea also says questions for the study were framed
poorly. In one example, he pointed out that the study gave
survey-takers, which work within the oil and gas industry, EPA estimates
of methane emissions. Given the industry’s interest in making sure
methane emissions are low, this could have “coached” survey-takers into
giving lower estimates, according to Ingraffea.

Ingraffea says he would have preferred a study that
randomly samples a larger number of operators from all over the country
with more objective questions. That, he says, would have produced much
more credible results.

Ingraffea also emphasizes that the data from this study is
made up of estimates derived by mathematical equations, not any actual
measurements taken from the field.

“No one, with one exception, has actually gone out into the field and made measurements,” he says.

The one exception is a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that was published February in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
The NOAA study measured Colorado gas wells in an attempt to get more
accurate data than what the EPA and the industry have been providing.
The measurements showed methane emissions were at least twice as large
as what the EPA was previously estimating, leading NOAA researchers to
conclude the EPA is greatly underestimating emissions, a stark contrast
to the API/ANGA study.

A local developer has offered to build a new jail adjacent
to the Justice Center, a cost of $65 million, in return for the county
leasing it for 30 years at $10 million a year, according to The
Enquirer. The developer, Rob Smyjunas, said the offer isn’t about making a profit, just making the county better for his and other families.

Mayor Mallory didn’t answer The Enquirer’s questions about
the potential for a Council majority to block the property tax increase in
City Manager Milton Dohoney’s proposed budget. A Mallory spokesman says he’ll work
behind the scenes on a budget that will win a Council majority and
that he’s off to New Orleans for a conference on reclaiming vacant
properties.

The Sanford, Fla., police chief who drew criticism for not investigating the shooting death of Trayvon Martin has been fired. Sanford
City Manager Norton Bonaparte said he relieved Bill Lee of his duties
because the police chief needs to have the trust and respect of the
community.

A video of middle school kids in upstate New York bullying
a 68-year-old bus monitor has drawn international media attention. The
woman says the kids are all pretty much normal and are OK to deal with
one-on-one.

The bullying continues unabated for about 10 minutes in
the video, reducing Klein to tears as a giggling student jabs her arm
with a book. Recorded by a student Monday with a cell phone camera, the
brazen example of bullying went viral and spurred international outrage.

"Actually, in the '90s it was thought that the climate
change would favor the chinstrap penguin, because this species prefers
sea waters without ice, unlike the Adelie penguin, which prefers the ice
pack," study researcher Andres Barbosa told LiveScience. He added that
at the time, chinstraps, named for the thin black facial line from cheek
to cheek, seemed to increase in numbers, with some new colonies being
established. The sea-ice decline in the winter, however, has become so
big that it is now impacting krill populations, said Barbosa, of the
National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid.

A new study has found that eating disorders are common
among older women. Researchers say weight and eating concerns do not
discriminate based on age.

College football BCS commissioners have endorsed a
four-team playoff format to determine college football’s national
champion instead of the current computer-human two-team system. The plan will go to the BCS presidential oversight committee
on June 26 for approval.

Lack of information, understanding of industry spurs halt

Ohio environmentalists and conservationists won a small victory in the fracking industry today when Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District decided to halt all water sales from Ohio's largest contained watershed to drillers in the oil and gas industry.

Environmental groups have expressed concern that the watershed's water supply could be sold for use in fracking, a fairly new drilling technique in which thousands of gallons of chemical-laden water are shot into the earth in order to fracture shale and free natural oil and gas. Critics of the process say more research is needed on the technique to fully understand fracking's long- and short-term environmental and economic effects. (Read CityBeat's June 6 cover story, "Boom, Bust or Both?" about Ohio's fracking industry, here.)

The decision to postpone the sales will be held until data is received in a water-availability study that's currently underway. Pending analysis of the study's results, MWCD plans to update its water supply policy to help deal with interested clients in the future.

“We
believe strongly that it is in the best interest of the public we serve
and the conservancy district to not entertain any water supply requests
until this study has been completed and the MWCD has had an opportunity
to update its water supply policy for review, public discussion and
consideration of the MWCD Board of Directors,”said John M. Hoopingarner, MWCD executive director/secretary in a press release.

The MWCD will honor its preexisting agreement to provide Gulfport Energy Co. with 11 million gallons of water from Clendening Lake in Harrison County.

The Enquirer today broke out its
Freedom of the Press Card, pressing the city to release details of
the bids to build the streetcar's five vehicles. Enquirer
Editor and Vice President Carolyn Washburn says the newspaper is
being a good watchdog by investigating all the redacted parts of
documents released by the city, which reportedly include typical
streetcar parts, performance data and personal information of
employees. A firm called CAF USA, which won the bid for more than $20
million, is trying to block the release of the data, along with two
losing bidders who claim the information is trade secret.

President Obama enjoyed an enthusiastic
welcome from Los Angeles LGBT supporters at an event in Beverly Hills.
Republicans are saying Obama is being all glitzy in California so
he's out of touch with Americans' struggles.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has returned
more than $100,000 in campaign contributions in response to an FBI
investigation into 21 donors who had no record of giving to federal
campaigns and many appearing to have low incomes. Mandel, a
Republican, is running against incombent Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Mandel's campaign treasurer Kathryn Kessler sent a letter to donors
explaining that any contributions appearing to be under investigation
would be refunded.

From The Toledo Blade:

Although the campaign provided a copy of the letter to The
Blade, it would not explain the timing of the decision or how long it
has been aware of the federal probe.

The Blade revealed the unusual pattern of contributions in
August.

The company's owner, Benjamin Suarez, and 16 of his employees
(plus some of their spouses) gave about $200,000 to Mr. Mandel and
U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci (R., Wadsworth) last year. Each of those donors
gave $5,000, the maximum allowable amount, to one or both candidates.

The Ohio Senate yesterday passed new
fracking regulations, and the final version caused some environmental
organizations to change their stance on the bill. The Ohio
Environmental Council and the Sierra Club had both been neutral on
the legislation until changes were made forcing anyone suing over
chemical trade secrets to show current or potential harm, according
to The Enquirer. The regulations are part of Kasich's new energy bill
and easily passed both the Senate and House and is expected to be
signed by Kasich soon.

Cincinnati Public Schools says it will
apply for the latest available federal education grants, which amount
to nearly $700 million. The grants are geared toward helping schools
proceed with reform and innovation.

United Nations inspectors have
reportedly found uranium in Iran enriched beyond the highest levels
previously reported. One diplomat said the measure could actually be
a measurement error, though the reading could also mean that Iran is
closer to producing bomb-grade uranium than previously thought.

Scientists might be one step closer to
creating birth control for men after U.K. scientists found a gene
used to enable sperm to mature.

The private group hoping to purchase
Music Hall for $1 is now asking for $10 million in city contributions
to its effort to update the historic building, double the initial $5
million it asked for. The Music Hall Revitalization Co. says failing
to strike a deal before June 1 will jeopardize the proposed $165
million renovation. Among the updates the city is being asked to fund
are $75,000 buffers to block noise from the streetcar and a $150,000
escrow account to pay for any future disruptions due to the
streetcar.

City Council yesterday spent some time
considering ways to fix the city's retirement fund deficit.
Cincinnati's retirement board wants the city to contribute $67
million to the pension system this year, though Council has
reportedly contributed only about half of that.

CVG today will unveil its updated
Concourse A, which has undergone a $36.5 million renovation. It is part of the
airports attempt to lure a low-cost airline to the hub that formerly
housed Delta.

Cleveland is the first Ohio city to
open one of the state's four new casinos, drawing about 5,000 to a
grand opening last night. Cincinnati's casino is expected to be the
last of the four to open, with Hollywood casinos scheduled to open in
Toledo May 29 and in Columbus this fall. Cincinnati's' Horseshoe is
scheduled to open next year.

Prosecutors today decided to bring
charges against former News of the World editor Rebekah
Brooks, who along with her husband and four others will be charged
with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. The alleged
incidents occurred in response the phone hacking allegations, and the
charges are apparently quite embarrassing to Rupert Murdoch and
British Prime Minister David Cameron.

JP Morgan today said, “Surprise! We
lost a bunch of money!” Two years after congress tightened
regulations on Wall Street, the industry now fears that regulators
will now listen to their fears even less as they enact stricter
reforms.

National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar, responding to the
pressure, said Tuesday that the permit for her June 3 "Born This
Way Ball" concert had been denied.

Indonesia, a nation of 240 million people, has more Muslims than
any other. Although it is secular and has a long history of religious
tolerance, a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent
years.

Hard-liners have loudly criticized Lady Gaga, saying the
suggestive nature of her show threatened to undermine the country's
moral fiber. Some threatened to use physical force to prevent her
from stepping off the plane.

Sen. Rob Portman is
sitting on more cash than nearly all of his GOP colleagues in the
Senate, despite the fact that he’s not up for re-election until
2016. There has been widespread speculation that Portman is a
Republican vice presidential candidate, and only three Senators have
more money on-hand than his Promoting Our Republican Team PAC
(PORTPAC) leadership committee.

Companies upstream from
Cincinnati have been dumping pollutants into the Ohio River since the
1940s, and federal authorities have reached a $5.5 million settlement
to start cleaning it all up. Eighteen companies and several federal
agencies will collectively contribute to restoring the Ashtabula
River and Harbor in northeast Ohio. Here's the latest from Dredging Today (the authoritative voice of underwater excavation activity and other earth-altering digs).

Locals who have
recently “pimped their rides” might want to read up on a bill
passed by Ohio lawmakers yesterday that bans hidden compartments in
vehicles. Police don’t want to have to open those fancy
compartments to check whether there are drugs inside or just a
10th tiny TV. Hear that, Colerain?

Here’s what Obama and
his advisers do on Sundays (after the prez’s round of golf, of
course): size up Mitt Romney.

U.S. job growth was
down in April, adding only 115,000 positions after seeing 154,000
added in March. The unemployment rate dropped .1 percentage point to
8.1 percent, largely due to workers leaving the labor force.
Republicans have some thoughts on the matter (Obama’s fault).

"If you examine
how I conduct myself," Nugent said, "I don't think a day
goes by in my life for many, many years now that we don't do charity
work for children. ... Call me when you sit down across from someone
who has more families with dying little boys and girls who get a call
to take them on their last fishing trip in life.

"Call me,"
Nugent continued in a raised, irritated voice, "when you meet
someone who does that more than I do. Because that's really moderate.
In fact, you know what that is? That's extreme. ... I'm an extremely
loving, passionate man, and people who investigate me honestly,
without the baggage of political correctness, ascertain the
conclusion that I'm a damned nice guy. ... And if you can find a
screening process more powerful than that, I'll [expletive]. Or
[expletive]. How's that sound?"

Headline: “Tech world
is out for blood.” Apparently Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s decision
to start a patent war was not such a good idea.

New York Yankees future
Hall of Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera tore his ACL during pregame
batting practice yesterday, putting the 42-year-old’s career in
jeopardy. There had already been speculation that Rivera would retire
after this season, and recovery from ACL surgery usually takes more
than nine months.

The rankings were included in
the group’s “State of the Air 2012” report. The annual air quality report
grades cities and counties based, in part, on the color-coded Air Quality Index
developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to alert the public
to daily unhealthy air conditions.

The 13th annual report uses
the most recent, quality-controlled EPA data collected from 2008-10 from
official monitors for ozone and particle pollution, the two most widespread
types of air pollution. Counties are graded for ozone, year-round particle
pollution and short-term particle pollution levels. Also, the report uses the
EPA’s calculations for year-round particle levels.

Generally, the report found
that air quality in America’s most polluted cities was at its cleanest since the
organization’s annual report began 13 years ago. This year’s report details the
trend that standards set under the Clean Air Act to cleanup major air pollution
sources — including coal-fired power plants, diesel engines, and SUVs — are
working to drastically cut ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot) from the
air. Despite this progress, unhealthy levels of air pollution still
exist and in some parts of the nation worsened.

More than 40 percent of
people in the United States live in areas where air pollution continues to
threaten their health. That means more than 127 million people are living in
counties with dangerous levels of either ozone or particle pollution that can
cause wheezing and coughing, asthma attacks, heart attacks or premature death.

The Cincinnati region ranked
21st for high ozone days out of 277 metropolitan areas. Also, it ranked 39th
for 24-hour air particle pollution.

Still, the region is
improving. The region has had 19.4 fewer high ozone days annually on average since
1996, and 10 fewer high-particle pollution days since 2000.